With the release of Anno 1800 Console Edition, 2019’s best PC colony builder is now playable on PS5, and we were relieved to find that the port went smoothly.Everything that used to require a mouse and keyboard is now perfectly at home on a console, and thanks to DualSense, it’s even better than ever.

In Anno 1800, you play as a businessman during the Industrial Revolution who wants to create a prosperous trading empire. So that your people on an isolated island group can always enjoy the comforts of modern life, you must grow raw materials and make consumer goods.If you decide that the pros are more important than the cons, your tough townies will become spoiled bourgeoisie and maybe even aristocrats.

As you progress through society, you’ll get access to new structures that will allow you to grow your business and interact with the outside world. Nearby islands may be occupied by either the intelligent computer (with its own unique personality and playstyle, á la the Civilization series) or as many as sixteen human players.

The PC version of the game has been updated over the years, and this console edition includes all of those updates for free. Overall, it’s a rare treat on the PS5 and PS4 in that it’s a strategy game that’s both highly replayable and a bit arcade-y (at least in comparison to something like the recent and more meticulous Transport Fever 2).

There is a long, fully voice-acted, single-player story campaign that is both a tutorial and a nice addition to the game. It is based on a Dickensian story about family drama.After your businessman father dies too soon, your evil, mustache-twirling Uncle Everard robs you and your siblings and leaves you with the bill for his funeral.

You need to take over the family business and build a successful trading company, and the foundation of this enterprise is your farmers. If you have access to cheap building supplies and some spare cash, you can quickly and easily construct crude shacks for them to live in. To keep them content, however, you’ll need to construct and manage fisheries (fish), grow potatoes for distilling into rough alcohol (schnapps), and raise sheep for making sturdy garments out of their woolen fleeces (work clothes). In addition, they’d require a market to stock up on supplies and a pub to wash away the stresses of the day.

Farmers have the lowest demand, but they need a steady supply of the above materials to keep going. This means that there needs to be a strong industrial complex and logistics infrastructure.After a person’s basic needs have been met, you can help them move up the social ladder by improving their living conditions by upgrading their home.

As an example of the exponential snowball effect this has, consider that the third class of citizens (out of six), the artisans, need everything the farmer does plus sausages, bread, soap, canned food, sewing machines, fur coats, rum, and convenient access to universities, churches, and variety theaters. This trend continues as colonial powers expand into the New World to meet the rising demand for coffee and chocolate among well-heeled engineers and investors.

To top it all off, workers are likely to revolt if they suddenly lose access to these conveniences (or if they are worked just a little too hard). And since the rioting workers aren’t working (and thus aren’t paying taxes), they’ll spend all day persuading the poor to band together in violent mobs to overthrow the government.

The most important part of the game’s strategy is making sure that your new colony is set up and built in the best way possible.You can establish diplomatic or military relations with your neighbors, trade goods and services, and more by sending one of your ships out. Combat is a last resort and not the main focus, but it is there if all else fails.

The PlayStation version has a completely new way to control the game, which is a great way to adapt what is basically a classic PC strategy game.While the learning curve is steep, DualSense makes diving into the weeds of that particularly thorny street a breeze once you’ve got the hang of it. The Annopedia, which includes every conceivable detail about the game’s numerous intricate mechanisms, is also brand new and significantly more comprehensive than the tutorial was in the original release.

Even though the Console Edition sometimes loses frames when zooming in on very busy streets, this happens rarely and doesn’t take away from the experience as a whole. A late-game colony, especially one handcrafted by someone who takes offense at the very idea of asymmetry, is a sight to behold, especially on a large screen. It’s dramatic music to match your imperial aspirations.

Even with the expanded tutorial and Annopedia, there is still a steep learning curve to be aware of.Anno 1800 is not necessarily “fun” at first because of its complexity. Rather, the fun is in the journey itself, from carefully tending to your ever-demanding populace to achieve greatness to optimizing your enterprise before competing on the global stage.

Conclusion
Anno 1800 Console Edition takes a deep and rewarding PC strategy game and makes it work well on a console. Anyone looking for a more arcade-style management sim will feel right at home with the game’s engaging mechanics and insane amount of replay value (not to mention multiplayer).

Pros:

Complex commercial and industrial infrastructures.
fascinatingly competitive element.
Absolutely stunning visuals and audio.

The potential for repetition is insane.

Cons:

Complexity can be intimidating.
Drops in frame rate may occur in busy areas.